Sonepur: The government has made provision for COVID-19 assistance to daily wagers, but assistance fund to the tune of over Rs40.74 lakh has remained undistributed while the Labour department has failed to trace whereabouts of 2,717 daily wagers in Subarnapur, a report said.
The report added that the district administration has been unsuccessfully trying to locate the labourers whose assistance is pending with the administration.
It is alleged that the labourers who have vanished without coming out to receive their COVID-19 assistance are only on books, it is alleged. They have been registered by the Labour department.
In view of this, the Labour department is left in a quandary.
On the other hand, officials at the block, panchayat and NAC and municipality levels have been trying their best to trace the labourers.
Collector Monisha Bannerjee has written to the BDOs of six blocks, executive officer of two NACs and Subarnapur municipality to immediately disburse the COVID-19 assistance of the left-out labourers.
They were also directed to prepare a list of labourers who have not received their assistance and send it to the Labour department.
In this situation, the registration of genuine labourers by the Labour department has come under cloud amid allegation that some middlemen have been fraudulently pushing ineligible people into the system as beneficiaries in rural areas. Scores of fake labourers have been grabbing benefits of various welfare schemes of genuine labourers.
Missing of over 2,500 labourers has left many wondering. It was alleged that even rich people and housewives have managed to register them as construction labourers and been receiving benefits.
The COVID-19 assistance was being provided eight months ago. During the lockdown and shutdown, thousands of labourers and daily wagers had lost their jobs and livelihood, so, Rs1,500 was allocated for each registered labourer. The district has 60, 841 registered labourers. Accordingly, Rs9.12 crore was provided as assistance.
As the Labour department is understaffed and there was possibility of crowding in banks, the department decided to disburse the assistance at their doorsteps through officials at the grassroots level.
It was learnt that 190 labourers in Sonepur block, 414 in Dunguripalli, 68 in Ullunda, 169 in Binika, 758 in Birmaharajpur, 319 in Tarabha, 427 in Tarabha town, 184 in Subarnapur town and 187 in Bainika town have not received their assistance.
As for the pending dues, district Labour officer Dileswar Khakha said that BDOs of six blocks, executive officers of two NACs and Subarnapur municipality have been asked to pay the assistance to the labourers.
“Due to change of the addresses of the registered labourers, there has been a delay on part of officials to pay the assistance. After we get the complete list of the beneficiaries who haven’t received the assistance, we will credit their money into their bank accounts,” he added.
PNN